Windows 98 = 4.10.1998 (it's plastered on the bottom right of my Win98 installation). _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I work for the local ABC station, ABC19 WKPT, and of course ABC is running their 24-hour 'millennium' celebration. We are cutting in for live local news at: 6:18pm | 7:30pm | 11:00pm all local time. However, the news director (not me, the head of the newsroom) has mandated that someone has to be there at 12am just incase ABC network programming cuts out (even though the celebration is all over the world, it's all going through one satellite to get to your home). I think it's absurd, but you never know what could happen. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I work at the local ABC station in Kingsport, Tennessee, and I might just pass this on to the newsroom (dunno if they'd do anything with it, but still...). This sounds cool as hell, a Microsoft key web site fixed by a Linux user who has no relation to the company whatsoever... _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
IANALOKILW* - this might be sort of obvious, but I believe it's also legal to copy US currency if it's to be used in a finished graphic/etc. and not with enough resolution to successfully copied. I of course could be wrong, but we use images of currency fairly often for on-air use in a graphic and we have never been approached by law enforcement.
* - I Am Not A Lawyer Or Knowledgeable In Law Whatever _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
They are saying that DAE on your home PC or Mac is illegal, for whatever reason. In other words, according to the mighty word of the RIAA, it is illegal for me to digitally extract my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd songs from their 1997 live album from Pittsburgh, in order to put them on my computer and listen to them without filling up my CDROM drive. This is bunk. I legally bought the album from a record store, so I may now legally do anything with it I choose, short of distributing copies of it, for free or for cash. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I'm the assistant newcast director for the local ABC station, and I am hourly. The senior director is on salary, and he works over quite a bit (sure would hate to be him:). I get doubletime-and-a-half, not to mention a decent benefits package. I wouldn't go salary for anything. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
So what? My RH5.0 CD does not install the kernel source with a full install either, just the headers. However, the source is on the CD, so the GPL is not violated. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
How about Segfault? Before the comments were removed, these type of messages filled the boards. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
So does this mean that if I make a small animation of Clinton's head turning into the devil's likeness, can I be arrested on the grounds of treason? This can't be... _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I only see one problem with this...that the searches were done *without permission* on *private machines*, not University-owned machines with student or other private accounts.
Machines paid for by the students.
This is illegal search and seizure, which is tantamount to common carrier status. Now CMU leaves themselves open to a lawsuit if someone posts a web site with anything libelous, since others may be more willing to sue.
Plus, what about the fact that some of the MP3s might have been legally distributable? What if (hypothetically) I was in a band with a few buddies, and I had MP3s of our music on my (hypothetical) computer at CMU? Would they have yanked my access?
I see a big problem with this. While many of the MP3s that were being shared were probably illegally distributed, they were on private computers. This is like me advertising copied CDs over the phone, and the RIAA threatening to sue the phone company, then the phone company in turn yanking my phone service from me. That's because (as we all know) the phone company is a common carrier. They could, of course, alert law enforcement and have me investigated, but they can't sue the phone company.
Of course, copying of MP3s is illegal, as is copying CDs, tapes, DVDs, VHS tapes, etc. It doesn't matter if the CDs, tapes, DVDs, VHS tapes, or MP3s are legally distributable. So is the consumer having a high-quality medium (whether it be audio or video) to produce and distribute their own content.
disclaimer.h: The opinions presented in this Slashdot post ('Post') are not those of my employer, ABC19 WKPT ('WKPT') but rather those of me ('me'). Any flames in response to the Post will be ignored by me. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Well, I used to be on prepaid with Bellsouth Mobility DCS (East TN region). The prepaid cards were either $25 or $50 (with the first card purchase required to be $50, with $25 of that for an activation fee) and the minutes were 50 cents (75 for LD), and (get this!) it wouldn't allow me to make ANY 800/888/877/900 calls (why? who knows...) The cards didn't roll over UNLESS you bought more time before the existing time expired (90 days for $50 cards, 60 days for $25). If you went 60 days with a $0 balance, then the account was deactivated. Oh well, that was better than a $700 deposit for normal rate plans (I had no credit rating then) _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Same here. I'm 19, and I've been working at the local TV station for the last 2.5 years, directing the news for 1 of them. Yet I go to fast-food restaurants and see the people who used to threaten to beat me up, called me geek, etc., handing me my food.
'It's nice to be king' - Tom Petty _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
By accessing WhatsHappenin.com you accept this Agreement without limitation or qualification.
THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU, THE END USER, AND THE PROVIDER, WHATSHAPPENIN.COM. BY ACCESSING THIS WEB SITE, YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THESE TERMS, DO NOT ACCESS THIS WEB SITE.
Wait a minute! Don't you have to be able to access the 'license' before your first use of the software itself (whether you do or not doesn't matter)? Unless this appears on your first access to the site, then it's not.
1. GRANT OF LICENSE. The provider, WhatsHappenin.Com, grants you, the end user, a non-transferable, non-exclusive license to browse, respond to and otherwise use this web site, solely for your own personal use, with only one central processing unit at any one time.
Only one CPU at a time? What if I have a dual-Celeron box? Am I forbidden from viewing this web site if I use a multithreaded browser?
a. You may not copy, distribute, publicly display or perform, reverse engineer, translate, port, adapt, modify or make derivative works of, or otherwise use any content contained on WhatsHappenin.com.
This is reasonable. It's just like any other commercial website/program/image/audio. No problem here.
i. "Content," as used throughout this Agreement includes, but is not limited to, any text, sound recordings, musical compositions, lyrics, graphics, images, photographs, databases, logos, motion pictures or other audio-video works, HTML or other files and software technology.
Once again, no problem here, except for the HTML part.
b. You may not rent, disclose, publish, sell, assign, lease, sublicense, market, or transfer any content or use it in any manner not expressly authorized by this Agreement.
Also acceptable.
c. You shall not derive or attempt to derive the source code, source files or structure of all or any portion of the web site by reverse engineering, disassembly, decompilation or any other means.
Unless that the original is GPL'ed, this is also not a problem.
e. You do not receive any, and WhatsHappenin.com or other respective owners retain all ownership rights in any content.
Acceptable, unless it happens to be your content and they are trying to leverage this license on you.
f. Any communication or material you send to WhatsHappenin.com, electronically or otherwise, including but not limited to data, questions, comments, suggestions, or submissions is and will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary. Anything you send to WhatsHappenin.com may be used for any purpose including, but not limited to, reproduction, transmission, disclosure, publication, broadcast, and posting. WhatsHappenin.com is free to use, without obligation of any kind, any ideas, concepts, techniques, or know-how contained in any communication you send, for any purpose whatsoever, including, but not limited to, developing, manufacturing, and marketing products and services.
Umm, not if I don't say so. Licenses of other companies don't override ownership of copyright (correct me if I'm wrong).
g. Any content, product, service, program, or technology on this web site is copyrighted, trademarked, patented or otherwise protected by intellectual property rights and may not be copied, distributed, publicly performed or displayed, adapted, modified or made into derivative works, or otherwise used, even if merged with other web sites. Any use of content without express written permission of WhatsHappenin.com or the rightful owner is strictly prohibited. Any such right that is not expressly licensed herein is reserved by WhatsHappenin.com or other rightful owners. You shall not alter or remove any copyright or trademark notice or proprietary legend contained in or on any content.
Not a problem.
i. All content is available for your non-commercial use only.
Not a problem either.
ii. WhatsHappenin.com neither warrants nor represents that your use of the material displayed on its web site will not infringe rights of third parties.
Hmm? This sounds sorta like the disclaimers on warez sites...
iii. Images of people or places displayed on WhatsHappenin.com are either the property of WhatsHappenin.com or used with permission. Use of these images by you or other third parties is prohibited unless expressly permitted in this Agreement. Any unauthorized use of these images may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and communications regulations and statutes.
Unless one happens to be of you, no problem.
iv. Any trademarks, logos, and service marks (collectively the "Trademarks") displayed on WhatsHappenin.com, whether registered or unregistered are property of its respective owners. Nothing contained on WhatsHappenin.com should be construed as granting by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademark displayed on WhatsHappenin.com without the written permission of the owner of the Trademark. Misuse of any Trademarks, or any other content, displayed on WhatsHappenin.com is prohibited.
2. NO WARRANTY OR LIABILITY. The Products are provided to you on an AS IS and WITH ALL FAULTS basis.
a. You assume the entire risk of loss in using the web site.
What that if their site somehow crashes my entire computer, and I have other work open that I lose?
b. WHATSHAPPENIN.COM MAKES AND END USER RECEIVES NO WARRANTY, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND ALL WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, TITLE, AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY EXCLUDED.
Like before, not a problem.
c. IN NO EVENT SHALL WHATSHAPPENIN.COM BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, CLAIM OR LOSS INCURRED BY USER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION COMPENSATORY, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, LOST SALES OR BUSINESS, EXPENDITURES, INVESTMENTS, OR COMMITMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BUSINESS, LOSS OF ANY GOODWILL, OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA OR INABILITY TO USE DATA) IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER WHATSHAPPENIN.COM HAS BEEN INFORMED OF, KNEW OF, OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE LIKELIHOOD OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION IN THE AGGREGATE INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, MISREPRESENTATION, AND OTHER TORTS. IF WHATSHAPPENIN.COM'S DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT SHALL FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER BE HELD UNENFORCEABLE OR INAPPLICABLE, END USER AGREES THAT WHATSHAPPENIN.COM'S LIABILITY SHALL NOT EXCEED $100.00.
$100? $100?!? This is not acceptable. What if their site somehow makes me lose some critical data?
d. The web site is complex and may contain some nonconformities, defects, viruses or errors. WhatsHappenin.com does not warrant that the web site will meet your needs or expectations, that operations of the web site will be error free or uninterrupted, or that all nonconformities can or will be corrected.
Viruses? Viruses?!? This is definitely not acceptable. No license should ever mention that their product may contain viruses!
e. While WhatsHappenin.com uses reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information on its web site, WhatsHappenin.com makes no warranties or representations as to its accuracy. WhatsHappenin.com may periodically add, change, or improve any of the information, products, services, programs, and technology described on its web site without notice. WhatsHappenin.com assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content.
That's fine, I'll just take it to the copyright holder (unless they can prove that they submitted an updated version of the content and that it had been submitted for a while).
f. WhatsHappenin.com has not reviewed all of the sites which are linked to its web site, and the fact of such links does not indicate any approval or endorsement of any material contained on any linked site. WhatsHappenin.com is not responsible for the contents of any site linked to it; and your connection to any such linked site is at your own risk.
That's fine, it's like commercials on TV (in the case of banner ads). I don't see a problem here.
3. MISCELLANEOUS.
a. This is the exclusive and entire Agreement between WhatsHappenin.com and you regarding its subject matter.
I am not fully sure about this, but I believe that if you are not given an explicit opportunity to see this license before you access it, then this does not apply.
b. Any legal dispute which may arise from or in connection with this Agreement, web site or its contents will be governed by the laws of the State of California. All parties to any such dispute will submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal and/or state courts of the State of California for all purposes. U.S. Copyright and Federal Trademark laws will be strictly enforced, subjecting violators to substantial civil and/or criminal prosecution.
This is acceptable, as this is also the standard agreement in the case of a magazine or newspaper.
c. You shall pay any taxes on transactions that may occur on the web site.
This would only apply to intrastate transactions, wouldn't it?
d. If any provision of this Agreement is declared invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions of this Agreement shall remain in effect.
I personally don't have any problem with this.
Well, there's my analysis of this license. It's only my opinion, the way I see this license, so don't flame me if I'm horribly wrong. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I know this has probably been said hundreds of times, but WHEN WILL THE MEDIA LEARN? It seems that scr1pt k1dd13s are more favorable press materials than the real crackers that no one knows about. I've been using Linux for over two years, but kept it to myself through the last of my school years, for fear that the freaks they call 'administrators' would size me up to be the next Kevin Mitnick in their eyes. After all, throughout the middle school and high school years for me, until the last two years, I was considered a nerd (and therefore was disliked for some strange reason) because of my interest in computers. Who's laughing now, when the same ones who disliked me are asking me how to fix their damn computers...
But that's another rant altogether.:)
Here's a plan to at least help fix the cracker/hacker mixup - point anyone who mentions the word 'hacker' as the malicious sense to the Jargon File...at least they can start figuring things out for themselves, instead of having the media force-feed it to them. It won't completely fix the problem, but it's an effort. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Those are dirty words in a language other than English, yet I bet they are not taken...kind of makes you stop and think. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Very true. The C64 is the best selling single brand of computer ever released (the PC market may have way more users, but there are not 20 million Gateway or Dell PC's out). Commodore's earlier computers (PET to VIC20) almost dominated the market, and you might say that Commodore was the Microsoft of the late 70's-early 80's (on the basis of size only, although their marketing style left something to be desired). The C64 is also the longest living computer ever (there are still demogroups existing today). _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Pretty much correct. The drives on a CP/M box (which at the time were mostly floppy drives, with some early Winchester drives as well) started with A, and kept going up, one letter per floppy, and if you did have a hard drive, then it would be another letter (I never really used CP/M, so I don't know how many drive letters the average hard drive would use). I remember from CP/M on my Commodore 128, that the standard CPM+.SYS only allowed 6 drive letters - A-D for the four physical floppy drives, E as a virtual drive (visualize B: under MS-DOS with only one floppy drive) and M for a RAM expander. The C could have very well been a hard drive under CP/M, or it could have been a floppy drive. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I'm one of the lucky ones. My local cable co./ISP offers unlimited bidirectional cable access for $29.95/mo. I emailed them with one single question:
"Does cable access require Win9x/NT or can I use the OS of my choice?"
The response:
"It doesn't matter what OS you use, as long as it can drive the Ethernet card that will be used."
They didn't mention whether or not Linux, etc. would be offered tech support, but I know that any experienced Linux user will be his/her own tech support. At least I don't have to worry about "We're sorry, we don't support Linux or anything other than Win9x/NT/MacOS, please purchase Windows and call us back..." when I order it.
Of course, they mentioned the ubitiquous (at least recently) 'We don't allow our users to run servers [referring to http/ftp] on a cable modem.' However, I can bind Apache to some unusual port (i.e. - anything but 80 or 8080) and say 'I also use my machine for web development, and that is where I have placed my testbed server, so users scanning IPs for web servers will hopefully not find mine.':) _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
200k of portscans? This is not good, the ISP being able to tell you what software you can use on your machine. I am currently running Windows 98 on this machine, and I have Apache installed as a simple testbed server...if I opt for our local cable modem service, will they start telling me that I need to disable Apache? They had better not...I also plan to set up a private FTP server so that I can move large graphic files between work and home without trying to split them up to multiple disks...they had better not tell me that is not acceptable...I know that portscans are not illegal but you have the right to block any addresses that excessively scan your machine. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Possibly, but (and I can say this with 100% accuracy) it's more likely that the station's clock is slightly off (or possibly, the air-switcher/channel operator is way off due to an error, I have switched on-air before, and been nearly 1 1/2 minutes early one time due to a bonehead error in the traffic department, where there was an entire comm. break left off). Many (but less than it used to be) WB and especially UPN stations are smaller stations (the local UPN station, which is a sister station to the local ABC station, has five tape machines and a simple routing switcher instead of a full-fledged air switcher) and are not automated, leaving large room for human error. I have seen some of our shows start *way* early. One time due to equipment error, our local 6pm newscast was almost required to go on the air *10* minutes early (the commercial spot server went down, and we ended the previous show that early because the breaks had to be skipped)! _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Just because "it's not going to go away", or "there's probably nothing that can be done about it" doesn't make it okay for geeks, goths, and other 'outcasts' to be tormented every day of their lives. No wonder these two guys went over the edge, it seems like they were mental to begin with (no relation to their choice of lifestyle) and the hell that they were given every day just make them worse and worse until they snapped.
I went to school with many goths, many people who wore trenchcoats. Were they looked at as weird? Definitely. Did some people think they were satanic? Of course. Did they get hell for it? Absolutely. Did they kill people because of it? Certainly *not*. Just because people wear a trenchcoat, or choose the goth lifestyle, doesn't make them a potential murderer. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Commodore 64 Democoder
It might have, if I had tried it...I just took the ugly green ball (I mean *ugly*) and stuck it in there, for the hell of it. If it had done anything at all I would have been surprised... _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Is this the one called "Marble Mouse"? I bought one of those for about $25, and it works great (although running UAE under Linux with Emulate3Buttons makes it hard to bring up the boot menu under Kickstart 2.0+:) As far as the maintenance, I remove the ball, take a small tissue, and rub the dirt off of the 'ball supports' (the three little things around the ball holder). It works great, and feels smoother than a regular trackball (even when it's dirty, which is much less often). If it just had a third button, I would be happy:) I guess you can consider it an optical trackball, since it doesn't use rollers but rather an IR beam. However, if you lose the ball, you're screwed (I tried a regular ball just for the hell of it, of course it didn't work). It's the third trackball I've owned (the first two worked fine for about 3 months then went to shit) and I'm very happy with it. I would recommend it (though this isn't on request of Logitech, paid or otherwise - I just think it's a great trackball). _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
So what? Distributing copyrighted software without permission from the copyright holder is also infringement. However, go to altavista.com and type in 'warez' and hit search...does this mean that every software company who has ever released commercial software can sue Altavista? I'll shit my pants the day that ever happens... _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19 Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Slashdot Mirror
Windows 98 = 4.10.1998 (it's plastered on the bottom right of my Win98 installation).
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I work for the local ABC station, ABC19 WKPT, and of course ABC is running their 24-hour 'millennium' celebration. We are cutting in for live local news at: 6:18pm | 7:30pm | 11:00pm all local time. However, the news director (not me, the head of the newsroom) has mandated that someone has to be there at 12am just incase ABC network programming cuts out (even though the celebration is all over the world, it's all going through one satellite to get to your home). I think it's absurd, but you never know what could happen.
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I work at the local ABC station in Kingsport, Tennessee, and I might just pass this on to the newsroom (dunno if they'd do anything with it, but still...). This sounds cool as hell, a Microsoft key web site fixed by a Linux user who has no relation to the company whatsoever...
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
IANALOKILW* - this might be sort of obvious, but I believe it's also legal to copy US currency if it's to be used in a finished graphic/etc. and not with enough resolution to successfully copied.
I of course could be wrong, but we use images of currency fairly often for on-air use in a graphic and we have never been approached by law enforcement.
* - I Am Not A Lawyer Or Knowledgeable In Law Whatever
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
They are saying that DAE on your home PC or Mac is illegal, for whatever reason. In other words, according to the mighty word of the RIAA, it is illegal for me to digitally extract my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd songs from their 1997 live album from Pittsburgh, in order to put them on my computer and listen to them without filling up my CDROM drive. This is bunk. I legally bought the album from a record store, so I may now legally do anything with it I choose, short of distributing copies of it, for free or for cash.
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I'm the assistant newcast director for the local ABC station, and I am hourly. The senior director is on salary, and he works over quite a bit (sure would hate to be him :). I get doubletime-and-a-half, not to mention a decent benefits package. I wouldn't go salary for anything.
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
So what? My RH5.0 CD does not install the kernel source with a full install either, just the headers. However, the source is on the CD, so the GPL is not violated.
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
How about Segfault? Before the comments were removed, these type of messages filled the boards.
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
So does this mean that if I make a small animation of Clinton's head turning into the devil's likeness, can I be arrested on the grounds of treason? This can't be...
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I only see one problem with this...that the searches were done *without permission* on *private machines*, not University-owned machines with student or other private accounts.
Machines paid for by the students.
This is illegal search and seizure, which is tantamount to common carrier status. Now CMU leaves themselves open to a lawsuit if someone posts a web site with anything libelous, since others may be more willing to sue.
Plus, what about the fact that some of the MP3s might have been legally distributable? What if (hypothetically) I was in a band with a few buddies, and I had MP3s of our music on my (hypothetical) computer at CMU? Would they have yanked my access?
I see a big problem with this. While many of the MP3s that were being shared were probably illegally distributed, they were on private computers. This is like me advertising copied CDs over the phone, and the RIAA threatening to sue the phone company, then the phone company in turn yanking my phone service from me. That's because (as we all know) the phone company is a common carrier. They could, of course, alert law enforcement and have me investigated, but they can't sue the phone company.
Of course, copying of MP3s is illegal, as is copying CDs, tapes, DVDs, VHS tapes, etc. It doesn't matter if the CDs, tapes, DVDs, VHS tapes, or MP3s are legally distributable. So is the consumer having a high-quality medium (whether it be audio or video) to produce and distribute their own content.
disclaimer.h: The opinions presented in this Slashdot post ('Post') are not those of my employer, ABC19 WKPT ('WKPT') but rather those of me ('me'). Any flames in response to the Post will be ignored by me.
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Well, I used to be on prepaid with Bellsouth Mobility DCS (East TN region). The prepaid cards were either $25 or $50 (with the first card purchase required to be $50, with $25 of that for an activation fee) and the minutes were 50 cents (75 for LD), and (get this!) it wouldn't allow me to make ANY 800/888/877/900 calls (why? who knows...) The cards didn't roll over UNLESS you bought more time before the existing time expired (90 days for $50 cards, 60 days for $25). If you went 60 days with a $0 balance, then the account was deactivated. Oh well, that was better than a $700 deposit for normal rate plans (I had no credit rating then)
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Same here. I'm 19, and I've been working at the local TV station for the last 2.5 years, directing the news for 1 of them. Yet I go to fast-food restaurants and see the people who used to threaten to beat me up, called me geek, etc., handing me my food.
'It's nice to be king' - Tom Petty
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
By accessing WhatsHappenin.com you accept this Agreement without limitation or qualification.
THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU, THE END USER, AND THE PROVIDER, WHATSHAPPENIN.COM. BY ACCESSING THIS WEB SITE, YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THESE TERMS, DO NOT ACCESS THIS WEB SITE.
Wait a minute! Don't you have to be able to access the 'license' before your first use of the software itself (whether you do or not doesn't matter)? Unless this appears on your first access to the site, then it's not.
1. GRANT OF LICENSE. The provider, WhatsHappenin.Com, grants you, the end user, a non-transferable, non-exclusive license to browse, respond to and otherwise use this web site, solely for your own personal use, with only one central processing unit at any one time.
Only one CPU at a time? What if I have a dual-Celeron box? Am I forbidden from viewing this web site if I use a multithreaded browser?
a. You may not copy, distribute, publicly display or perform, reverse engineer, translate, port, adapt, modify or make derivative works of, or otherwise use any content contained on WhatsHappenin.com.
This is reasonable. It's just like any other commercial website/program/image/audio. No problem here.
i. "Content," as used throughout this Agreement includes, but is not limited to, any text, sound recordings, musical compositions, lyrics, graphics, images, photographs, databases, logos, motion pictures or other audio-video works, HTML or other files and software technology.
Once again, no problem here, except for the HTML part.
b. You may not rent, disclose, publish, sell, assign, lease, sublicense, market, or transfer any content or use it in any manner not expressly authorized by this Agreement.
Also acceptable.
c. You shall not derive or attempt to derive the source code, source files or structure of all or any portion of the web site by reverse engineering, disassembly, decompilation or any other means.
Unless that the original is GPL'ed, this is also not a problem.
e. You do not receive any, and WhatsHappenin.com or other respective owners retain all ownership rights in any content.
Acceptable, unless it happens to be your content and they are trying to leverage this license on you.
f. Any communication or material you send to WhatsHappenin.com, electronically or otherwise, including but not limited to data, questions, comments, suggestions, or submissions is and will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary. Anything you send to WhatsHappenin.com may be used for any purpose including, but not limited to, reproduction, transmission, disclosure, publication, broadcast, and posting. WhatsHappenin.com is free to use, without obligation of any kind, any ideas, concepts, techniques, or know-how contained in any communication you send, for any purpose whatsoever, including, but not limited to, developing, manufacturing, and marketing products and services.
Umm, not if I don't say so. Licenses of other companies don't override ownership of copyright (correct me if I'm wrong).
g. Any content, product, service, program, or technology on this web site is copyrighted, trademarked, patented or otherwise protected by intellectual property rights and may not be copied, distributed, publicly performed or displayed, adapted, modified or made into derivative works, or otherwise used, even if merged with other web sites. Any use of content without express written permission of WhatsHappenin.com or the rightful owner is strictly prohibited. Any such right that is not expressly licensed herein is reserved by WhatsHappenin.com or other rightful owners. You shall not alter or remove any copyright or trademark notice or proprietary legend contained in or on any content.
Not a problem.
i. All content is available for your non-commercial use only.
Not a problem either.
ii. WhatsHappenin.com neither warrants nor represents that your use of the material displayed on its web site will not infringe rights of third parties.
Hmm? This sounds sorta like the disclaimers on warez sites...
iii. Images of people or places displayed on WhatsHappenin.com are either the property of WhatsHappenin.com or used with permission. Use of these images by you or other third parties is prohibited unless expressly permitted in this Agreement. Any unauthorized use of these images may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and communications regulations and statutes.
Unless one happens to be of you, no problem.
iv. Any trademarks, logos, and service marks (collectively the "Trademarks") displayed on WhatsHappenin.com, whether registered or unregistered are property of its respective owners. Nothing contained on WhatsHappenin.com should be construed as granting by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademark displayed on WhatsHappenin.com without the written permission of the owner of the Trademark. Misuse of any Trademarks, or any other content, displayed on WhatsHappenin.com is prohibited.
2. NO WARRANTY OR LIABILITY. The Products are provided to you on an AS IS and WITH ALL FAULTS basis.
a. You assume the entire risk of loss in using the web site.
What that if their site somehow crashes my entire computer, and I have other work open that I lose?
b. WHATSHAPPENIN.COM MAKES AND END USER RECEIVES NO WARRANTY, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND ALL WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, TITLE, AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY EXCLUDED.
Like before, not a problem.
c. IN NO EVENT SHALL WHATSHAPPENIN.COM BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, CLAIM OR LOSS INCURRED BY USER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION COMPENSATORY, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, LOST SALES OR BUSINESS, EXPENDITURES, INVESTMENTS, OR COMMITMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BUSINESS, LOSS OF ANY GOODWILL, OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA OR INABILITY TO USE DATA) IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER WHATSHAPPENIN.COM HAS BEEN INFORMED OF, KNEW OF, OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE LIKELIHOOD OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION IN THE AGGREGATE INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, MISREPRESENTATION, AND OTHER TORTS. IF WHATSHAPPENIN.COM'S DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT SHALL FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER BE HELD UNENFORCEABLE OR INAPPLICABLE, END USER AGREES THAT WHATSHAPPENIN.COM'S LIABILITY SHALL NOT EXCEED $100.00.
$100? $100?!? This is not acceptable. What if their site somehow makes me lose some critical data?
d. The web site is complex and may contain some nonconformities, defects, viruses or errors. WhatsHappenin.com does not warrant that the web site will meet your needs or expectations, that operations of the web site will be error free or uninterrupted, or that all nonconformities can or will be corrected.
Viruses? Viruses?!? This is definitely not acceptable. No license should ever mention that their product may contain viruses!
e. While WhatsHappenin.com uses reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information on its web site, WhatsHappenin.com makes no warranties or representations as to its accuracy. WhatsHappenin.com may periodically add, change, or improve any of the information, products, services, programs, and technology described on its web site without notice. WhatsHappenin.com assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content.
That's fine, I'll just take it to the copyright holder (unless they can prove that they submitted an updated version of the content and that it had been submitted for a while).
f. WhatsHappenin.com has not reviewed all of the sites which are linked to its web site, and the fact of such links does not indicate any approval or endorsement of any material contained on any linked site. WhatsHappenin.com is not responsible for the contents of any site linked to it; and your connection to any such linked site is at your own risk.
That's fine, it's like commercials on TV (in the case of banner ads). I don't see a problem here.
3. MISCELLANEOUS.
a. This is the exclusive and entire Agreement between WhatsHappenin.com and you regarding its subject matter.
I am not fully sure about this, but I believe that if you are not given an explicit opportunity to see this license before you access it, then this does not apply.
b. Any legal dispute which may arise from or in connection with this Agreement, web site or its contents will be governed by the laws of the State of California. All parties to any such dispute will submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal and/or state courts of the State of California for all purposes. U.S. Copyright and Federal Trademark laws will be strictly enforced, subjecting violators to substantial civil and/or criminal prosecution.
This is acceptable, as this is also the standard agreement in the case of a magazine or newspaper.
c. You shall pay any taxes on transactions that may occur on the web site.
This would only apply to intrastate transactions, wouldn't it?
d. If any provision of this Agreement is declared invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions of this Agreement shall remain in effect.
I personally don't have any problem with this.
Well, there's my analysis of this license. It's only my opinion, the way I see this license, so don't flame me if I'm horribly wrong.
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I know this has probably been said hundreds of times, but WHEN WILL THE MEDIA LEARN? It seems that scr1pt k1dd13s are more favorable press materials than the real crackers that no one knows about. I've been using Linux for over two years, but kept it to myself through the last of my school years, for fear that the freaks they call 'administrators' would size me up to be the next Kevin Mitnick in their eyes. After all, throughout the middle school and high school years for me, until the last two years, I was considered a nerd (and therefore was disliked for some strange reason) because of my interest in computers. Who's laughing now, when the same ones who disliked me are asking me how to fix their damn computers...
:)
But that's another rant altogether.
Here's a plan to at least help fix the cracker/hacker mixup - point anyone who mentions the word 'hacker' as the malicious sense to the Jargon File...at least they can start figuring things out for themselves, instead of having the media force-feed it to them. It won't completely fix the problem, but it's an effort.
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
ficken.com
scheisse.com
fickenscheisse.com
Those are dirty words in a language other than English, yet I bet they are not taken...kind of makes you stop and think.
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Or Win97? Didn't think so.
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Very true. The C64 is the best selling single brand of computer ever released (the PC market may have way more users, but there are not 20 million Gateway or Dell PC's out). Commodore's earlier computers (PET to VIC20) almost dominated the market, and you might say that Commodore was the Microsoft of the late 70's-early 80's (on the basis of size only, although their marketing style left something to be desired). The C64 is also the longest living computer ever (there are still demogroups existing today).
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Pretty much correct. The drives on a CP/M box (which at the time were mostly floppy drives, with some early Winchester drives as well) started with A, and kept going up, one letter per floppy, and if you did have a hard drive, then it would be another letter (I never really used CP/M, so I don't know how many drive letters the average hard drive would use). I remember from CP/M on my Commodore 128, that the standard CPM+.SYS only allowed 6 drive letters - A-D for the four physical floppy drives, E as a virtual drive (visualize B: under MS-DOS with only one floppy drive) and M for a RAM expander. The C could have very well been a hard drive under CP/M, or it could have been a floppy drive.
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
I'm one of the lucky ones. My local cable co./ISP offers unlimited bidirectional cable access for $29.95/mo. I emailed them with one single question:
:)
"Does cable access require Win9x/NT or can I use the OS of my choice?"
The response:
"It doesn't matter what OS you use, as long as it can drive the Ethernet card that will be used."
They didn't mention whether or not Linux, etc. would be offered tech support, but I know that any experienced Linux user will be his/her own tech support. At least I don't have to worry about "We're sorry, we don't support Linux or anything other than Win9x/NT/MacOS, please purchase Windows and call us back..." when I order it.
Of course, they mentioned the ubitiquous (at least recently) 'We don't allow our users to run servers [referring to http/ftp] on a cable modem.' However, I can bind Apache to some unusual port (i.e. - anything but 80 or 8080) and say 'I also use my machine for web development, and that is where I have placed my testbed server, so users scanning IPs for web servers will hopefully not find mine.'
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
200k of portscans? This is not good, the ISP being able to tell you what software you can use on your machine. I am currently running Windows 98 on this machine, and I have Apache installed as a simple testbed server...if I opt for our local cable modem service, will they start telling me that I need to disable Apache? They had better not...I also plan to set up a private FTP server so that I can move large graphic files between work and home without trying to split them up to multiple disks...they had better not tell me that is not acceptable...I know that portscans are not illegal but you have the right to block any addresses that excessively scan your machine.
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Possibly, but (and I can say this with 100% accuracy) it's more likely that the station's clock is slightly off (or possibly, the air-switcher/channel operator is way off due to an error, I have switched on-air before, and been nearly 1 1/2 minutes early one time due to a bonehead error in the traffic department, where there was an entire comm. break left off). Many (but less than it used to be) WB and especially UPN stations are smaller stations (the local UPN station, which is a sister station to the local ABC station, has five tape machines and a simple routing switcher instead of a full-fledged air switcher) and are not automated, leaving large room for human error. I have seen some of our shows start *way* early. One time due to equipment error, our local 6pm newscast was almost required to go on the air *10* minutes early (the commercial spot server went down, and we ended the previous show that early because the breaks had to be skipped)!
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Just because "it's not going to go away", or "there's probably nothing that can be done about it" doesn't make it okay for geeks, goths, and other 'outcasts' to be tormented every day of their lives. No wonder these two guys went over the edge, it seems like they were mental to begin with (no relation to their choice of lifestyle) and the hell that they were given every day just make them worse and worse until they snapped.
I went to school with many goths, many people who wore trenchcoats. Were they looked at as weird? Definitely. Did some people think they were satanic? Of course. Did they get hell for it? Absolutely. Did they kill people because of it? Certainly *not*. Just because people wear a trenchcoat, or choose the goth lifestyle, doesn't make them a potential murderer.
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Commodore 64 Democoder
It might have, if I had tried it...I just took the ugly green ball (I mean *ugly*) and stuck it in there, for the hell of it. If it had done anything at all I would have been surprised...
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
Is this the one called "Marble Mouse"? I bought one of those for about $25, and it works great (although running UAE under Linux with Emulate3Buttons makes it hard to bring up the boot menu under Kickstart 2.0+ :) As far as the maintenance, I remove the ball, take a small tissue, and rub the dirt off of the 'ball supports' (the three little things around the ball holder). It works great, and feels smoother than a regular trackball (even when it's dirty, which is much less often). If it just had a third button, I would be happy :) I guess you can consider it an optical trackball, since it doesn't use rollers but rather an IR beam. However, if you lose the ball, you're screwed (I tried a regular ball just for the hell of it, of course it didn't work). It's the third trackball I've owned (the first two worked fine for about 3 months then went to shit) and I'm very happy with it. I would recommend it (though this isn't on request of Logitech, paid or otherwise - I just think it's a great trackball).
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
So what? Distributing copyrighted software without permission from the copyright holder is also infringement. However, go to altavista.com and type in 'warez' and hit search...does this mean that every software company who has ever released commercial software can sue Altavista? I'll shit my pants the day that ever happens...
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Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder